1. The Field of the Present Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic commerce, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to electronic management of supply chain networks between product suppliers, online retailers and product distribution centers.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, involves the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet. E-commerce draws on multiple technologies, including mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.
Traditionally, e-commerce is conducted through e-commerce websites using various business models. Under one model, online sellers offer their own products to online consumers through their own proprietary e-commerce websites. These websites are considered proprietary because the sellers do not allow third-parties to sell products on the websites. In this model, sellers own and manage their own product inventory. For example, an online seller offers a range of products to consumers through its own proprietary e-commerce website. When a sale is made, the online seller ships the product from its warehouse to the purchaser.
Under another model, third-party e-commerce websites allow online sellers to offer products, but under the sellers' own names. This type of third-party website may include auction-type websites and classified-type websites. In some cases, these third-party websites provide online sellers with their own virtual store fronts. But, under this model, online sellers are typically required to manage their online transactions with consumers, including payment, inventory warehousing, and shipping.
More recently, another model has developed that allows online sellers to list products on third-party websites in a manner that is largely transparent to consumers. For example, previously proprietary e-commerce websites owned by large retailers have opened their doors to third-party sellers. These types of websites are known as third-party marketplaces in the industry. Under this model, popular online retailers partner with sellers that are able to enhance consumer experience by bringing greater product selection to their e-commerce websites. Typically, the products of both the operator of the e-commerce website and the sellers selling on the website receive equal treatment in the search results. Third-party marketplaces are particularly advantageous to small and medium sized sellers that may not have the resources to operate an e-commerce website. Examples of large online retailers operating third-party marketplaces include Overstock.com, Amazon.com, Sears.com, Ebay.com, Walmart.com, and Buy.com. In addition, it is predicted that many more third-party marketplaces may be available in the near future.
Although third-party marketplaces have benefitted sellers and online retailers, some drawbacks still exist. For example, sellers offering products through multiple third-party marketplaces must manage each marketplace account separately, which may create excessive supply chain management costs. Because of these excessive supply chain management costs, some sellers may artificially limit the number of third-party marketplaces through which they offer products. It would therefore be an improvement to provide a supply chain management system with a single integration point that lowers supply chain management costs in a manner that would benefit third-party marketplaces and sellers.
Another drawback that exists for sellers, even those using third-party marketplaces, is that more sophisticated consumers are demanding almost immediate delivery of products purchased from online retailers. In fact, total delivery time is becoming increasingly a differentiating and deciding feature for online shoppers. While large online retailers may have sufficient resources to establish large distribution supply networks, retailers of this size are few. Many third-party marketplaces require sellers to directly integrate and manage their inventory across multiple distribution centers, which adds costs to the total supply chain and is a barrier-to-entry for many sellers. However, costs often limit sellers to a single distribution center. Additionally, sellers must determine how much inventory to allocate to each third-party marketplace, and they assume the risk of having unsold inventory locked into a single retailer. Therefore, it would be a further improvement to provide an automated supply chain management system that provides sellers with a single integration point and access to multiple third-party marketplaces and third-party distribution centers.
The prior art is thus characterized by several disadvantages that are addressed by the present disclosure. The present disclosure minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures, and other problems, by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein.
The features and advantages of the present disclosure will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the present disclosure without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the present disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.